The 13th Round of RCEP Negotiations Held in Auckland

The 13th round of RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) negotiations was held in Auckland, New Zealand on June 10-18. Attending were delegations from 10 ASEAN countries, China, Japan, ROK, Australia, New Zealand, India and the Secretary of ASEAN. In-depth talks were made in areas of trade in goods, trade in service, investment, intellectual property, economic and technological cooperation, competition, e-commerce, and legal terms, etc. The 4th RCEP Trade Ministers’ Meeting will be held in Laos in early August.

The RCEP negotiation was launched in November, 2012. With 50% of the world’s population, its members have one third of the GDP, trade value and absorption of FDI of the world. The RCEP negotiation is the largest negotiation of free trade agreement in Asia at present and is also one with the most members, the largest size and the most influential among all the negotiations that China has engaged in.